


Waist Knot -- Fic (?)

by Anonymous



Category: The Waste Land - T. S. Eliot
Genre: Bad Bang, Deliberate Badfic, F/M, Gen, I Don't Even Know, Nonnies Made Me Do It, Nonnies may not be entirely to blame, Other, Songfic, i guess, the only living art
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-19
Updated: 2014-09-19
Packaged: 2018-02-17 23:44:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2327489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>ok so when I got this assignment I knew I would have to do something worthy of its glory</p><p>so I borrowed a ouiji board and did a séance in my living room to ask the original poet t. s. eliot what he would prefer </p><p>he agreed that it is the greatest fan art of his poem ever created and also spelled out using spirit power the following message </p><p>ZSOZNGFJKISTHONONLIYLIVINDGGARRT</p><p>which if the spiritual contact hadn't been slightly disrupted by me being drunk would undoubtedly read</p><p>SONGFIC IS THE ONLY LIVING ART </p><p>hence I have endeavored to reenvision this beautifully re-envisioned poem using song lyrics in a method I hope will be approved of by both the original genius eliot and the responding genius, or Eliot's Soul Echo, who created the amazing visual tribute to The Waste Land that inspired this work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waist Knot -- Fic (?)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Waist Knot](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2313614) by Anonymous. 



> Written for Bad Bang II: Bang Backwards!

 

  1. **The Burial of the Dead**




 

As I walk through the valley of the shadow of April

I find my spirits unmanned by the rising water table

Winter's soft snow kept my hopes so low that

Now at the lilacs' tickle they don't know where to go.

I'm a sad-sack brasstack-tooth-bending banker

The state of the modern soul has aroused my anger

Hey where did we go, days

when the sun came? Out in the Hofgarten,

playing a new game. Freedoms' just another word

for nowhere left to go sledding

All I can do is read a book to stay awake

It feels moderately elegiac, but it's a great escape.

 

Now the shiny cars

are veiled by darkness, now the sun

Sucks dry our promises, now the dry stone

is parched more than ever, only

There is shadow under my umbrella

(Come under the shadow of my umbrella)

and I will show you the meaning of being lonely

I will show you the rain coming down.

_I close my eyes_

_Only for a moment and the moment's gone_

Coming back late from the Hyacinth garden

Hiding behind the hyacinth glade

Quoting Tristan like a plea for pardon

All along the colonnade with you

My hyacinth girl – Do you remember when

we used to sing _Sha la la la la la la la la la la ti da_

(just like that) _Shalalalalalalalalalala_

 _lalalala_ (lalala)

(la ti da)

 

Cards, cards, everywhere the cards

Breaking up the narrative in little green shards

Three staves, eye-pearls, crowds

Can't you read the cards?

 

I lost my heart under the brown fog, closing walls

and ticking clocks. I lost my heart

Under the bridge, so many lost, but tell me:

who has won? The trench in his heart

you can enter – with hammer, yes! and vise--

But into his corpse-filled garden, don't think twice.

My brother the reader, you are just like me

You look in the mirror but don't like what you see

If you don't like it, don't look in the mirror

_Hypocrite lecteur! –Mon semblabe, – mon frèrer!_

 

 

 

  1. **A Game of Chess**




 

The beast called Karma rules the decorating

Her nerves are mangled, too

The cars and cards are bought and cut

Her tchotchkes are a slow black-syrup flood

How can the poet keep from hating?

Oh, what's a boy to do?

 

_Come and talk to me_

_Please talk to me  
_

_Talk to me talk to me  
_

_Mr. Mystery_

 

Doctor my eyes are full of plaster

My heart turns from ash to asher

oh my

my

oh hell yes 

we will rise and put on 

our politesse

 

_Take your make-up off_

_let your hair down take a break from Tom it's ok_

_if you like you_

 

CLOSING TIME

Lil, pull up your stockings and stuff some teeth back in your head

CLOSING TIME

Told that girl, I told her, you can rest from childbirth when you're dead

CLOSING TIME

Should have stayed a spinster if you want to live in some other fear

CLOSING TIME

You don't have to like it, but that's truth right here

 

 

  1. **The Fire Sermon**




 

Time is a river and so

is the river, which leads

To a certain degree of confusion.

You try to go swimming in your up-to-date bathing suit

And twenty years pass, and your suit is passé

And all those things that seemed so important,

Mister, they vanish right into the air

Andrew Marvell smirks like “I told you so”

Your skin all puckered that once was fair

 

Time is a highway

I don't want to ride it all night long

If you're going my way

Why don't you pull off at the next interchange and run along?

Time is a highway

Why don't you give the fucking horn a rest, you twat?

If you're going my way

Welcome to the goddamn human race; can I please

please please please

just

once

have a cup of tea in peace?

 

_I'm like a bird_

_I'll never fly away_

_I still know what his name is (name is)_

_I still know what his name is_

_The only one I need for you to blame is_

 

Shut your mouth about my French

Burrow back into your own trench.

I am human and I need to be loved, just

like everybody else

does

 

Are we human, or are we banker?

The hour is violet

My eyes are blind

I turn dying-lightward as the room grows danker

Are we human? Or are we banker?

The evening sun plays on my underwear

All piled up on the seat. Tiresias,

don't you think it's rude to stare?

Bad sex is not defeat

And even if it is, it's still not your call

Close the door and move your feet

and stop brooding: it's not your bed;

it's not so bad

 

_(He thought that she might have_

_Some advice to give on how_

_To be insensitive)_

 

Music

in a word'll

creep beside you,

yeah

Music makes the bourgeoisie's

Blood to curdle, yeah

 

Death is a river, and the river

By coincidence or descent, is equally a river

River of blood and oil, know I know too well,

know the chill, know

she breaks – my siren

 

Mark my words, this love

will make you levitate, or at least

bob a little, Dudders---

Ghosts of suburbs in the marshes

All thick with tales to tell

I want to hear the ding ding dong

I want to hear the bells

 

So what's a boatfloor

more or less between friends?

 

Is the world a vampire? These stones are drained.

Someone will say, “What is lost can never be saved”

The knowledge is parchment, the hands naked, animal

Someone will say of me, “Look!

See how he remains, despite all pretension,

A rat in suspension.”

 

O Carthage - -

Sun-baked city where lusts are kindled

Your thirst won't be dwindled

Now you're in Carthage

These streets will make you feel horny

So why the hell don't we?

Let's hear it for Carthage, Carthage,

Carthage, only you

 

can cool my desire

 

Oh, oh oh, I'm on fire

 

 

  1. **Death By Water**




 

I hear the cold waves beat to the beat of the drums

Oh what a shame to forget where you came from

If I die young

 

Sea-nymphs sing the choral

Turn my bones to a bunch of coral

Sink me in the water, down deep

Don't you pretend I lost anything you can keep

 

 

  1. **What the Thunder Said**




 

If I were a thunderclap

And you were my lightning

Would you lie down and take a nap

Would you find it frightening?

Anxious people, huddled fast

There's time enough to die at last

All we need is just a little patience

 

Goodbye, ladies, sweet ladies, goodbye

Drove my flivver to the river, but the river was dry

The grass isn't singing, the cicadas won't sigh

_My death and I are a magical hermit_

_We go together like Miss Piggy and Kermit_

 

In the shadow of human remains

Fleshless femurs

Skulls bereft of brains

In empty chapels, how the parched wind churns

Old heads keep singing

Out of old cisterns

In these cathedrals

Of your fevered brain

There is a feeling

This must be rain

 

_Boom!_

_Clap_!

A damp gust of wind -- the only sound

Co co rico rico co 

_Thunder_

_only happens when it's raining._ Crazies

Only love you when they're craying

Women

they will come and they will go

Talking cleverly and low _  
_

 

_how come every time you come around_

_my london london bridge wanna go down_

 

_like london london london_

_wanna go down like_

 

If you were a power surge

And I was a socket

Gather up these broken words

Keep them in my pocket

 

If I were a thundersky

And you were my people

I would roll you a lullaby

Where the waters are peaceful


End file.
